Fiji

Fiji A group of some 330 islands in the Melanesian archipelago, the largest being Vit Levu. The islands became a British Crown Colony in 1874, when British settlers immediately began to import Indians to work on sugar plantations on an indenture system. In the first forty years of British rule, Indian settlers received no political rights, so that political and administrative power became entrenched among native Fijians. During World War II, Fiji was an important supply station for US forces. Self-government was granted in 1948, and independence gained in 1970, with the British monarch remaining the titular head of state. As before independence, politics were dominated by the ethnic conflict between the marginally larger Indian population (48.6 per cent in 1992) represented by the Labour Party, and the Fijians (46.2 per cent) represented by the conservative Alliance Party. The Fijians remained in control of 80 per cent of the land and dominated the political system.

In 1987, T. Bavadra led the Labour Party to victory in the elections, but on 14 May 1987 he was deposed by the military composed mainly of Fijians. After a further coup, led by Sitiveni Rabuka, Fiji was declared a republic, whereupon it was expelled from the Commonwealth (17 October 1987). In 1990, a constitutional amendment guaranteed the Fijians thirty-seven of the seventy parliamentary seats, compared with twenty-seven for the Indians (the rest being distributed among other ethnic groups). Rabuka returned to power in 1992, and in 1998 instituted a new constitution. This produced Fiji's first democratic elections, in 1999, leading to the victory of Mahendra Chaudry and the Labour Party. He was deposed the following year by a coup led by the Fijian businessman, Georges Speight. Although the coup was unsuccessful, it led to the assumption of power by the military. A new government under Ratu Josefa Iloilo included only one Indian, and in 2001 was declared unconstitutional by the High Court, which demanded the return of Chaudry and his legitimate government. Iloilo, however, continued to govern in clear disregard of the Court, with the support of the influential Great Council of Chiefs.